US strikes kill Iraqi rebels

US jets tonight dropped laser-guided bombs on rebel positions in a village north-west of Baghdad, killing nine insurgents – five of them Syrians, the US military said.

The airstrike was launched after troops from the US 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment and the Iraqi 1st Division came under fire from three buildings in a village west of Haditha, 140 miles north-west of Baghdad, the military said.

Jets from the 2nd Marine Air Craft Wing dropped three laser-guided bombs and one global positioning system guided bomb on the buildings, destroying all three of them, the statement added.

Two suspected insurgents were arrested, the statement said. It did not say how the military determined that five of the dead insurgents were Syrian.

Elsewhere, today a car bomb exploded near a US military convoy in Ramadi, setting two vehicles on fire, Iraqi police said. It was unclear if there were casualties.

The attack took place shortly after 4pm in the city centre near Moawiya Mosque, said police Lt. Mohammed al-Obeidi.

He said police were unsure whether the car was driven by a suicide attacker or if it was detonated while parked on the street.

Attacks on US troops are common in the predominantly Sunni Muslim western province of Anbar that borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Ramadi is the provincial capital.

Algerian police meanwhile detained a leader of the country’s banned Islamic Salvation Front after he publicly praised Iraqi rebels and condoned this week’s killing of two kidnapped Algerian diplomats, a newspaper reported today.